Case 2-AFR-EGY-Ushabti-Meritaten-Blue and Green Faience-18th dynasty_1550-1295 BCE

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This funerary figurine is of Meritaten (14th century BCE),  "She who is beloved of Aten", the sun-god her father Akenaten worshipped at Amarna, the Capital City he built in the Eighteenth Dynasty which was known as Akhetaten, "Horizon of the Aten". Meritaten may have served as pharaoh in her own right under the name, Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten. During the New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE) funerary figurines resembled the tomb owner bearing the owner’s name. Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya.

LC Classification: DT62

Date or Time Horizon: 18th dynasty_1550-1295 BCE

Geographical Area: Amarna

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Construction of Amarna started in or around Year 5 of Akenaten’s reign (1346 BC) and was probably completed by Year 9 (1341 BC), although it became the capital city two years earlier. To speed up construction of the city most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, and white washed. The most important buildings were faced with local stone.^[10]

It is the only ancient Egyptian city which preserves great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned after the death of Akhenaten, when Akhenaten's son, King Tutankhamun, decided to leave the city and return to his birthplace in Thebes (modern Luxor). The city seems to have remained active for a decade or so after his death, and a shrine to Horemheb indicates that it was at least partially occupied at the beginning of his reign,^[11] if only as a source for building material elsewhere. Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement^[4] began along the edge of the Nile.

References:

 Aldred, Cyril (1988). Akhenaten: King of Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500050484. OCLC 17997212.

 David, Rosalie (1998). Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. Facts on File.

 de Garis Davies, Norman (1903–1908). The Rock Tombs of El Amarna. Part 1–6. London: EES.

 Eyma, Aayko (ed.) (2003). A Delta-Man in Yebu. Universal-Publishers.

 Grundon, Imogen (2007). The Rash Adventurer, A Life of John Pendlebury. London: Libri.

 Hess, Richard S. (1996). Amarna Personal Names. Winona Lake, IN: Dissertations of the American Schools of Oriental Research - DASOR, 9.

 Kemp, Barry (2012). The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Amarna and its People. Thames and Hudson, London.

 Martin, G. T. (1989) [1974]. The Royal Tomb at el-'Amarna. 2 vols. London: EES.

 Moran, William L. (1992). The Amarna Letters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4251-4.

 Redford, Donald (1984). Akhenaten: The Heretic King. Princeton.

 Waterson, Barbara (1999). Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Age of Revolution.

Appendix

Meritaten, Louvre

Meritaten, UCL, Petrie Museum. After https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Alabaster_sunken_relief_.

Meritaten (far left and far right) on the reconstructed pylons leading to Amarna. http://www.amarna3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/AMARNA3D_Projects_V2_Gem-pa-Aten-001.jpg